Forever is a Gift
by Kei Tree
Summary: CH 3 Up! Labyrinth Cross-Over: Dawn wishes Buffy away in a fit of grief and now the sisters must defeat the Goblin King, and win his aid in the fight against Glory.
1. Who Are You?

Hello all, this is my first crossover ever so, should be interesting   
to say the least. Of course, once I decided I wanted to do one,   
Labyrinth and Buffy were the first two things to pop into my head   
together (of course... ahem). Anyway, I'd love it if ya'll gave   
it a chance and a review. Thank you as always, Kei.   
  
PS: As always, thank you to Irene for putting up with crazy story   
ideas and my horrid grammar. :)   
  
And because I have no idea who will end up reading this, here's a   
brief synopsis of each.  
  
**Buffy the Vampire Slayer:** One girl in all the world is chosen to   
stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. She   
is called the Slayer, cue Buffy Summers, and spends her often short   
and bloody life fighting for the greater good.  
  
**Labyrinth:** Jareth, the Goblin King, rules the Underground- his   
kingdom is a giant maze called the Labyrinth. He takes children   
who are wished away into his realm, and gives those who wish them   
away thirteen hours to find their way through the maze and reclaim   
the children. Sarah Williams is probably the only person to ever   
recover a child, in her case her little brother Toby.   
  
**Timeline**: Takes place from fifth season Buffy, directly after   
Joyce's death (episodic- Forever), and some time after the movie   
concludes for the Labyrinth (about ten years).

** Forever is a Gift: Chapter One**   
  
_"Who are you?"  
"Let's just say I'm a friend."  
"Well, maybe I don't want a friend!"  
"I didn't say I was yours." -Buffy and Angel_ _  
  
_  
Willow and Tara didn't know what they were talking about, couldn't.   
How dare they? Dawn had watched her mother be buried today, put in   
a god-damn hole in the ground where it was dark and cold and... No   
one could understand that. No one could understand what that meant   
to her. Not even Buffy.  
  
Especially not Buffy with her talk of wakes and caskets and, why   
the hell was she so put together? Had Mom really meant that little   
to her? Dawn wasn't even, wasn't even REAL and Joyce Summers meant   
more to her, had meant more to her, than she had to Buffy Summers,   
her god damned REAL daughter.   
  
Angry, angry at Willow and Tara with the well meaning condolences,   
angry at Buffy with her calm acceptance of their Mother's death,   
angry at everything, Dawn ignored the sympathetic looks the witches   
sent her way and ignored them both until they drifted away to leave   
'little Dawnie' alone to grieve and throw her fits.   
  
Hot tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and she dashed them   
away, determined, desperate to stay angry at anything and anyone.   
Just not wanting to feel, to feel so sad. "I hate them, I hate   
them all. For not caring enough. I hate them!"   
  
Her whispered declaration only made her feel worse and, with a   
curse that would have made Spike proud, stood and stalked to browse   
the bookshelves mindlessly. Her fingers trailed over the spines of   
the bindings, pausing over certain titles, "Death of the Innocent,"   
_The Truth of Blood, The Labyrinth._  
  
Defiant curiosity made her pull the last slim volume from the shelf,   
a book with a red leather cover. She sneered as her swollen   
eyes traced the gold leaf title, with its ornate script as she   
softly said, "The Labyrinth." Allowing herself to be forcefully   
distracted and distanced from her grief, she returned to the seat   
she had vacated in anger and dropped bonelessly into it before   
opening the book and skimming.   
  
Dawn sat, enthralled despite herself, by the twisting story the   
words told. Faeries and goblins weren't so very far away from   
her own life, but they seemed so harmless in this book. Things   
to beware but maybe not fear. And the Goblin King was magnetic   
in a way that reminded her most of the Master, or the Mayor, who   
spoke in condescending riddles with laughter that meant so much   
more.   
  
Granted her memories of both big bads were false but, still,   
they reminded her of the Goblin King none the less. It was   
comforting in a way, to think of facing some reincarnation of   
them again, instead of a crazy hell god. It was comforting to   
think of what the Goblin King would say to bring her proud sister   
down a peg or two. To maybe make Buffy the Vampire Slayer FEEL.   
  
Most days Dawn wondered if Buffy really felt anything at all.   
That was really why Riley had left, wasn't it? Because Buffy   
didn't know how to love him. Just like she had never really loved   
Mom or, or, or even Dawn herself. Because if her perfect older   
sister had really loved Dawn she'd be there for her right now.   
Dawn suddenly didn't care if she wasn't being fair.   
  
Its not like life was fair after all. Just one bloody mess after   
another that required a super hero like Buffy to pick up the   
pieces too, like organizing the details of their Mother's death.   
"I hate her," Dawn whispered again, and this time, she meant it.   
"I hate her and I wish..." red rimmed eyes lit upon the open pages   
before her before finding the words, "I wish the goblins would   
come and take Buffy away, right now!"   
  
The lights in Willow's apartment snapped off with ominous precision   
and Dawn was left wondering what exactly grief had lead her to.

* * *

The cemetery was eerily quiet. Nothing moved, not the wind through   
the trees, not the grass disturbed by the newly dug grave that was   
her Mothers, not Angel's chest. She clutched his familiar hand   
tighter and stepped unconsciously closer to the illusion of safety   
his presence granted her as Buffy turned her face upwards.   
  
Angel reached over with his free hand to tuck an errant strand of   
hair behind her ear as she stared at the cloudless night sky.   
"What's wrong?" he asked softly, gently, as though harsh words might   
break her. And the sad truth was, they could. It wouldn't take   
much to destroy her right now. A beloved Mother's death and   
crushing responsibility had already chipped away most of her hard   
earned strength.  
  
"I don't know, the spider sense though, its going all tingly."  
  
Angel lifted one brow and sniffed delicately before frowning. "A   
Vampire?"  
  
Buffy shrugged and stepped away from his half embrace, dropping the   
intimacy of their shared hands as she crossed her arms over her   
breast, brow furrowed as gentle moonlight softened the harsh lines   
grief had carved into her features. "No," she finally replied   
distantly, "not a Vampire but something, something is coming..."   
  
The night seemed to close in on the once lovers, a blanket of   
suffocating ebony littered with stars that exploded in a flurry of   
ivory feathers and smoke. The feathers littered the grass of the   
cemetery by the time the smoke cleared, leaving Buffy the Vampire   
Slayer and Angel, a Vampire with an ensorcelled soul, staring at a   
being much more fantastical than any either, in their broad range   
of experience, had ever seen before.   
  
"I think that something has arrived," Angel stated baldly.  
  
The creature stood before them, dressed in rich purple silks and   
black velvet, and leather, lots of leather, from thigh high boots   
to elbow length gloves. It looked human, almost, only no human   
had features that haughty and pale, and eyes that were mismatched   
blue and green. Or blonde hair that would rival a lion's mane.   
And very few men in Buffy's experience carried around a riding   
crop, at least not ones who looked as comfortable with it as this   
man looked. Also, no human male could pull off a look that   
ridiculous, not even Angel in his lace shirt phases. Which all   
begged the question...  
  
"Who the hell are you?" 


	2. The Guy Puzzle

AN: Thanks for the feedback (keep it coming)! Its good to see   
some old Labyrinth faces and a lot of new people. Let me know  
if there's anything you're dying to see, or anything that would   
kill you to see in this story. Cross-overs are tricky and I'd   
love to get some suggestions- though its a writer's right to   
ignore the suggestions she disagrees with ;). Also, are there   
any Buffy/Laby cross-overs already written, just out of   
curiosity? I'd like to read them.  
  
Oh yes, and the names. Jareth's use of names will be clarified  
later on so yeah, that's about it.  
  
Now go thank Irene for editing this chapter and fixing the   
majority dumb Kei related errors. **After** you leave feedback.

** Forever is a Gift: Chapter Two**   
  
_"So, you've been seeing a guy, but you don't know what he looks   
like. Okay, this is a puzzle. No, wait, I'm good at these. Does   
it involve a midget and a block of ice?" Buffy  
_  
Jareth regarded the two before him with amused indulgence that   
barely masked the deadly will beneath. He glanced around and   
laughed, momentarily delighted by their surroundings. "A   
graveyard, how very quaint and Laurel K. Hamilton. Were you   
doing a sacrifice, or just a performing a spell?"   
  
The woman shivered as his laughter broke over her like the   
swelling waves of a dark sea. "Who are you?" she demanded   
again, voice imperious but more brittle as she stepped still   
closer to the man by her side. Jareth's gaze turned professional   
and lingered on the grave by their feet long enough to note the   
freshly turned earth, and the name on the tombstone.  
  
"Ahh," he murmured as his crop slapped the side of one boot.   
He drifted closer to the grave and lifted one brow as the duo   
moved away from him in kind, leaving a generous amount of distance   
between them.   
  
All three knew on some level that distance didn't matter, not to   
this stranger in lace and leather with too worldly eyes.   
  
The Goblin King lingered at the grave for a moment, pleased. "So  
grief drove the wish. That's so much more interesting than mere   
vanity or hatred. So much more complex." His tongue paused over   
the last word, considering it, and its implications, before he   
looked up and met the woman's startled, red-rimmed gaze.  
  
"Wish? What wish? Wishes end in bad things like me trying to   
seduce Xander and..."  
  
The man in black placed a gentling hand on one slim shoulder.  
  
"Who are you?" the blonde whispered hoarsely.   
  
Jareth smiled lazily, showing pronounced canines artfully as he   
held her stare. "Tell her who I am, Angelus."  
  
"You can't have her," the Vampire threatened roughly, but the   
warning came out half-heartedly, despite its attempted heat.   
Angelus would give much to keep the woman from Jareth's machinations,   
that was not the issue. The issue rested in the fact that the   
Vampire, for all his power, had none over Jareth himself.   
  
Aboveground and Underground were two different worlds and only the   
Goblin King was master of his.   
  
"Woah, having? Who said anything about having?"   
  
The hand on the woman's shoulder tightened but she didn't so much   
as flinch. "Buffy," Angelus whispered softly, "calm down."  
  
Buffy wrenched herself away from the Vampire with surprising ease   
and turned so that she could face them both. "Okay, I have had a   
VERY bad day," the strong voice wavered a bit on the last word but   
she shook herself and continued on doggedly, "and I want to know   
what the HELL is going on and I want to know NOW and I do not WANT   
to bloody calm down!"   
  
"You've been hanging around Spike much too long," Angelus muttered   
to her with obvious annoyance.   
  
The woman, Buffy, turned an interesting shade of purple as Jareth   
tilted his head and considered their words. "Spike, William the   
Bloody?"   
  
Buffy blinked as Angelus winced, visibly. Jareth grinned broadly   
as he relished the beginning of what looked to be a very   
interesting game. "He is a very... creative demon. Most   
enthusiastic about his work. You are acquainted with him?"   
  
The woman snarled, "Not by choice!"   
  
Jareth ignored her and turned to the Vampire. "You have lived   
long enough to know the rules of my world. The wisher will have   
thirteen hours to win back the wished if she so desires. Otherwise   
this... Buffy will become part of my dominion, my world."  
  
Angelus paled. "Who would wish her away? Her Mother is dead..."  
  
"And her sister is grieving with all the rage and self-pity she   
can muster. It was sufficient to give Dawn the will to attempt   
to wish her problems away. Or problem, singular, as the case may   
be."   
  
"Excuse me, what's happening over here?" Buffy demanded with a   
raised hand and a slightly panicked look upon her pinched face.   
  
Angelus closed his eyes in pain. "Dawn wished you away to the   
Labyrinth, and the Goblin King."  
  
"And the Goblin King would be..."  
  
Jareth raised a single flaxen brow and Buffy's mouth snapped   
audibly closed, for all of two seconds.   
  
"So what? I'm just supposed to say, tra-la-la and let you whisk   
me away to the place where Nut Cases live because my sister threw   
a temper tantrum or something?"   
  
The Goblin King cleared his throat delicately. "You're delightfully   
insolent. Have you tried beating it out of her Angelus?" The   
Vampire flushed as Jareth turned to deal with his newest acquisition.   
"Your will is of no importance. In this game you are no warrior,   
merely a pawn." Buffy glared, hands balled and resting on her hips.   
"A very loud pawn," he continued smoothly, "but a pawn none the   
less."   
  
Jareth took a single step in their direction and was pleased when   
the delicate blonde refused to back away. Another three swift steps   
let him face her, let him look down upon the mortal prize that was   
currently being contested. Behind the red-rimmed eyes was a steely   
strength that could perhaps match his own. This Buffy was so much   
older than any of the others who had ever been willed to his care,   
and not just in years.  
  
"What are you going to do," she demanded roughly, "kidnap me with   
magic?"   
  
The Goblin King's answering smile was softly cruel as he nodded   
gravely in a helpless Angelus's direction. Jareth's gloved hands   
seized Buffy's shoulders as he replied, "That is the plan."   
  
Angel lunged towards the pair but Jareth's power flared abruptly,   
leaving empty air and the raw earth of a freshly dug grave in their   
place. The Vampire cursed darkly and ran towards the Summers'   
house.   
  
He had to find Dawn before the Goblin King did.

* * *

Dawn groped blindly for the light switch, muttering unpleasant   
words as she tripped over the clothes strewn across Willow's floor   
and tried to hold back her rising panic. Its not that she didn't   
believe in coincidences, because well, sometimes shit happened,   
but the words she had spoken had come out much more grave than she   
had intended.   
  
A moment of rage born from grief had been given a weight that Dawn,   
as she fumbled in the darkness, didn't REALLY mean.  
  
There was some shuffling, from the corner by the table. In the   
moonlight she could see a small, almost furred figure disappear   
behind the bookcase. Dawn swallowed as shuffling renewed, this   
time from under the crack of the door.   
  
She turned so that her back was pressed against the wall as her   
grasping hands seized upon, well, a desk-lamp as a weapon. "This   
was so not a good idea," she whispered fiercely. The drawers in   
the desk rattled menacingly and whatever managed to climb behind   
the bookcase seemed just as determined to wiggle back out again.   
"Bad, BAD idea..." Dawn continued. One small, selfish part of her   
wanted to see if she could handle whatever was coming her way.   
She was a big girl after all. Big enough to have a dead Mother.  
But the majority of her was screaming in terror and getting very   
ready to call for Willow and Tara's help. The bookcase goblin chose   
that moment to squeal and throw itself across the room.   
  
Dawn yelped and started to scream for her very powerful witchy   
friends when lightning flashed, blinding her. She threw an arm   
across her face and ducked instinctively, lamp clutched to her   
breast. A heartbeat later and thunder followed the lightning.   
Only, that wasn't all that came. She could sense the power, even   
before she opened her eyes, and power was usually not a sign of   
happy and fluffy things in Sunnydale.  
  
Dawn slowly cracked open her gaze and swallowed automatically as   
she saw what had taken the place of the creepy furry things.   
Moonlight dramatically framed the being who seemed to fill the   
room they were in, outlining his fantastical silhouette and   
hinting at the smirk that curled the lips on his sharply defined   
face. Or at least she thought it was a him- with hair like that...  
  
Dawn Summers shook her inner ramblings off and stood, not willing   
to be intimidated by some unidentified creature of the, err, night.   
Still holding her lamp as a makeshift weapon she asked the only   
thing that came directly to mind: "Who the hell are you?"  
  
The being threw back his head and roared with laughter that was   
beautiful and terrible in its wild perfection. "And I never would   
have guessed you two were related," he deadpanned. "Let's save the   
long winded introductions, Dawn. I am the Goblin King, and your   
sister, Buffy Summers, is mine." 


	3. Hanging On

**AN:** Feedback: motivation for those inclined towards procrastination.   
In other words: me.   
  
Thanks to my super duper beta trooper, Irene. Why yes, I did make   
that ridiculous rhyme up all by myself... How kind of you to pelt   
rotten fruit at me for it. ;)  
  
** Forever is a Gift: Chapter Three   
**  
_"How could you let her go?"  
"As the soon-to-be purple area on my jaw will attest, I did not 'let'   
her go!" -Xander and Giles   
_  
"So, umm, by 'mine' do you mean in like the Biblical sense because,   
if so, please spare me the details."  
  
A cold smile froze what little humanity there was in the Goblin   
King's face. "Do your foolish words make you feel braver, Dawn?   
They do nothing for your cause."   
  
She swallowed, hypnotized by the cultured disdain etched on the   
Goblin King's sculptured face. Her tongue wet suddenly dry lips.   
"What... what cause is that?" she stammered as she tried to come to   
grips with the fact that her fairy tale had become flesh and blood.  
  
And suddenly he was in her face, sneering, powerful, intimidating   
as hell, even in lace and leather. Only one pathetic desk lamp   
stood between her and this creature of myth and fancy. Dawn had   
faced her share of demons and evil nasties but there was something   
distinctly different about the Goblin King. He was tightly coiled   
energy, controlled distaste, deadly elegance. He was more than good   
and evil or right or wrong, bigger and infinitely more complex than   
those two polar opposites she had believed in most of her life, or   
imaginary life as the case may be.  
  
It was hard to be on the side of righteous and good when she wasn't   
really sure if there was a side to be on, not when a Goblin King,   
THE flesh and blood Goblin King, was staring down at her from a   
breath away. He had pretty eyes.   
  
Dawn was pretty sure she was going to have nightmares about them.   
He was like nothing she had imagined. He was more real, and a hell   
of a lot more intimidating.  
  
The Goblin King tapped his crop against one cheek, making her jump   
at the contact. "You made a wish, child, am I to understand that   
you actually want it to be granted?"   
  
Dawn's brow furrowed as she thought, and paled with the knowledge   
of what her self-righteous wrath had wrought. "Where's Buffy?" she   
demanded as she stepped willingly closer to this dangerous man with   
deadly grace and a vampire's fangs.   
  
His mismatched gaze crinkled with cold laughter. "Ahh... so you   
will join the others in your regret."  
  
Her small hands clenched into fists that left half moons curled   
into the palms as she strangled the lamp. "Where is my sister?!"   
she screamed, heart slamming with the fear that maybe Dawn Summers   
really was as alone as she felt. Maybe the invincible Slayer had   
let grief lead her astray as well.   
  
The creature tisked her, amused by her inner turmoil, as the stupid,   
stupid crop pointed towards the book Dawn had flung to the floor in   
her terror. Its pages lay twisted, open, but she didn't have to   
look at them for the truth to blind her with its implications.   
  
"Give her back!"   
  
The Goblin King stared at her, down at her, all hint of amusement   
gone. The damned crop rested against his heel as he unconsciously   
struck a pose. Moonlight framed him once again, sketched the   
proud silhouette, and made her aware of just how much potential   
mere darkness could hold. "Take her from me," came the frigid,   
precise reply.   
  
Her mouth snapped shut, then slowly opened, "I have thirteen   
hours."   
  
She could see, even with the distance between them, the slight   
sneer on his sculpted lips. "Yes, that is traditional."   
  
Dawn swallowed, and watched, transfixed despite herself, as the   
Goblin King waved one lace covered arm. She stared at the scene   
he had conjured, at the twisting green Labyrinth, and the Castle,   
ensorcelled safely beyond the Goblin City. It looked almost as   
intimidating as its Lord and Master did. "Leave her to me, Dawn."  
  
She met his strange, disquieting eyes. "She's my sister."   
Shuddered as those eyes pierced her and read the secrets of her   
questionable soul.   
  
"Is she really then?" The drawled reply was awful to hear, painful  
with its insinuating truths.   
  
Dawn's eyes flashed, with rage, determination, and enough power   
to pique the fickle Goblin King's interests. He hadn't been   
presented with such interesting possibilities since...  
  
His mind automatically blocked the thought, and the feelings that   
would follow it. He was powerful, but he was no longer invincible,   
thanks to, thanks to one who no longer had a place in his world, or   
his thoughts.   
  
"She is all the family I have left in this world."  
  
Her answer drew him from the echo of regret to the present. And   
Jareth grinned in mocking reply. "Yet she is part of my world now.   
You saw to that."   
  
The girl's chin raised an inch, and jutted out. "Not for long.   
I'll win her back."   
  
"Will you?" he asked, indulging her self-delusions. "You wouldn't   
be the first. But I promise you Dawn Summers, you won't be the   
second."  
  
"Second?" came her yelp.  
  
"Are you planning on bringing the lamp with you? I give my word,   
the sun will shine, even Underground."  
  
Dawn stared blankly down at the object still cradled against her   
chest. Embarrassment stained her cheeks as she gently placed the   
lamp on the ground in the center of the room, and walked through   
the portal the Goblin King's magic had called, back ramrod straight   
as his laughter floated sardonically after her.

* * *

Angel was frantic by the time he had run across town to Willow's   
apartment after finding the Summer's house empty and cold. Tara   
answered the pounding at the door, looking withdrawn, the gentle   
lines of her face etched deeper by grief for a woman who had show   
her some of the scant kindness she had received in the world.  
  
You didn't have to lead a hard life for life to not be easy. And   
Tara had never had an easy life.   
  
"Is Dawn here?" Angel demanded, empathy for the ash-blonde witch   
softening the edge panic gave his question.   
  
Tara drew further into herself at his words, and tucked an errant   
strand of hair behind one ear before nodding slowly; unsure of this   
black clad stranger who had meant so many things to the people she   
had come to care about. It was difficult to decide how to treat a   
man who had been lover, torturer, murderer, and friend.  
  
Xander and Giles would never truly forgive him for his sins. Willow   
and Buffy already had.   
  
"Dawn wished Buffy away to the Goblin King. We have to stop..."  
  
Tara whitened at the words and Angel knew, in that instant, where   
Dawn Summers had learned the story of the Underground.  
  
"We have to stop him from taking them both."   
  
"Oh goddess..."  
  
Angel stepped forward, until he was at the boundary that refused   
him entrance to Willow's home. "Tara?"  
  
"I invite you in," she called over one shoulder as she turned and   
ran, bare feet flashing pale soles in her race towards the room she   
and her lover had left Dawn in to grieve. Angel barreled in after   
her, shouting for Willow all the while. 


End file.
